Friday, October 22, 2004

University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumnus Jonathan Berger (LLM '01) was cited in a New York Times article about the decision by two major drug companies to expand licencing of anti-AIDS drugs in southern Africa to generic manufacturers ("Pact expands generic drugs in South Africa to fight AIDS," New York Times, December 11, 2003).

The decision, made after considerable pressure was exerted on the companies by the South African government and AIDS activists, could result in dramatically lower prices.

"It's come late, but not too late," said Berger, a lawyer at the AIDS Law Project at the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg. "Many tens, if not hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost. But many lives can now be saved, and that's what's important."

Berger estimated that the average price of anti-retroviral treatment could drop to as little as $25 from as much as $225 - a figure that dwarfs the average monthly income in South Africa.

On November 21, 2003, Berger gave a presentation at the Faculty of Law on the issue of the pricing of anti-AIDS drugs in South Africa. See his powerpoint presentation, "The Price of Life: A Legal Challenge to the Cost of Antiretroviral Therapies in South Africa."

Find out more about Jonathan Berger's work in the article from the Spring 2003 issue of Nexus, "HIV/AIDS in Africa - Battling the Barriers to Treatment."